Paul Cantor Complete Work — Paul A. Cantor

William Blake, Capitalist

Blake was a bit of a capitalist himself. His capital consisted chiefly of a small printing press, together with supplies of paper and engraving plates, which he and his wife dutifully lugged with them whenever they changed domiciles.

RomanticismVirginiaMay 5, 2020Book Review, Romanticism

W.C. Fields

W.C. Fields made the endless struggle to become someone else the theme of his films, as he debunked a variety of incarnations of the American Dream.

Popular CultureVirginiaMay 5, 2020Film, Popular Culture

Salman Rushdie

Given what happened to him after the publication of The Satanic Verses, who could criticize Salman Rushdie if he became a little gun-shy? Essay

PostcolonialVirginiaMay 5, 2020Postcolonial, Essay, Salman Rushdie

Jurassic Marx

I think it says something good about the American people that they cannot get enough of their beloved dinosaurs. They are displaying at least a form of scientific curiosity. Aristotle said that philosophy begins with wonder, and dinosaurs are wondrous. Essay

Popular CultureVirginiaMay 5, 2020Book Review, Popular Culture, Literary Theory, Film

O, Cleopatra

What we refer to as Hellenization or Romanization in the ancient world may well be the first examples of the phenomenon we now call globalization. Essay

ArtVirginiaMay 4, 2020Art

American Classic

Wood seeks to produce the paradox of an American Gothic, to combine the best of the New and the Old Worlds--a synthesis he found adumbrated in the quaint house that inspired the painting and led to its name. Essay

ArtVirginiaMay 4, 2020Art, American Gothic, Grant Wood, Essay, Painting

Felix the Great

Mendelssohn's works obviously deserve to be called great. He may not have changed the course of music history, but think of how much poorer that history would be without the likes of the Octet, the Violin Concerto, the Italian Symphony, and Elijah. Essay

Music, ArtVirginiaMay 4, 2020Music, Mendelssohn, Essay

Listen to Wagner

Wagner, for all his faults, his reprehensible behavior, and his contemptible beliefs, made a unique contribution to the world of music and expanded our awareness of the range of the human soul’s possibilities. Essay

Music, ArtVirginiaMay 4, 2020Art, Music, Wagner, Essay

Philosophy in a Clown Suit

Leo Strauss taught us about esoteric writing. Arthur Melzer shows that understanding esoteric writing is vital to understanding Western culture and, indeed, culture in general. Essay

PhilosophyVirginiaMay 4, 2020Book Review, Leo Strauss

Unearthly Delights

The seemingly innocuous occasion of commemorating the 500th anniversary of the death of the great painter Hieronymus Bosch touched off a battle of museums. Essay

ArtVirginiaMay 4, 2020Art, Painting

Extraordinary Ordinary

Vermeer did not acquire his reputation as one of the great masters until the second half of the 19th century, when the Romantic idea of genius had triumphed. Essay

ArtVirginiaMay 4, 2020Art, Painting, Vermeer

The Apocalyptic Strain in Popular Culture

We seem to have survived the Mayan apocalypse predicted for December 21, 2012, but maybe we should not get too cocky. American popular culture is overflowing with doomsday prophecies and end-of-the-world scenarios. Essay

Popular CultureVirginiaMay 1, 2020Walking Dead, Popular Culture, American Dream

The Economic Basis of Culture

An introduction to the basic systems of supporting the arts—patronage, commercial markets, government funding—all work, some work better than others. The importance of the division of labor in artistic creation. The caveman who invented art. Culture and spontaneous order. Lecture 1

Commerce & CultureVirginiaMay 1, 2020Commerce & Culture, Economics, Mises

Between Heaven and Hell

Hamlet in Purgatory in many respects serves as the culmination of Greenblatt's long-term project as a cultural historian. Book Review

ShakespeareVirginiaApril 30, 2020Book Review, Greenblatt

The Economic Muse

Shakespeare knew everything. He even knew the law of supply and demand, long before Adam Smith or any modern economist formulated it. Book Review

Economics & LiteratureVirginiaApril 30, 2020Book Review

Average Bill

If you really want to learn something about Shakespeare, go back to the plays. Book Review

ShakespeareVirginiaApril 30, 2020Book Review, Shakespeare

History Plays

Shakespeare's ability to provoke a variety of thoughtful responses is one measure of his enduring greatness. Book Review

ShakespeareVirginiaApril 30, 2020Book Review

Playwright of the Globe

Shakespeare tried to understand the world, and now the world tries to understand him. Essay

ShakespeareVirginiaApril 30, 2020Essay

Is There Intelligent Life on Television?

The fact that we now need books to explain our favorite TV shows suggests that the best products of the medium have developed the aesthetic virtues we traditionally associate with books. Essay

Popular CultureVirginiaApril 30, 2020Book Review

A Handshake Across the Centuries

Things Fall Apart, the most famous postcolonial novel, actually has deep roots in European culture, the deepest roots possible. It has become a classic because of its ties to the ancient Greek classics.

PostcolonialVirginiaApril 30, 2020Chinua Achebe, Postcolonial, Essay